Neighborhood Services News

An I Believe I Become Family.

Posted: 10-10-2012

Erica Carrisalez held her 4-year-old daughter E’Mari at the I Believe I BecomeEast Zone Community meeting last night and said that her involvement with the initiative has been so positive that she is making it a priority.

“If we can get parents to feel that they have a role, especially the men, then what I notice is that they step up and actually play it,” she said.

Carrisalez and her husband have brought their children —daughter Jaccia, 12, twins Markell and Ca’Trell, 7, and baby E’Mari — to several B2B events. Baby Scholars also had a huge impact on their family. Carrisalez said that E’Mari impressed her teacher when she entered pre-school this year because she was so far ahead and knew so much. The Natural Helper in their area Montel Pierre connected them with the program, and also invited them to the B2B events, which she said are amazing to her.

“These meetings are somewhere that we can share problems, but also learn how to solve them,” she said. “We can improve education, but education goes a long way — it’s about improving life, period.”

She says she will continue to bring her family to the meetings because she believes in the initiative. From Baby Scholars — “Now I can take her out in public and know how to manage — I learned that from the teachers and other families!” — to the meetings, B2B has had an impact on her life.

“I want to tell my children they can reach for the stars, and the sky has no limit. If we can get them to learn that, we can get them anywhere they want to go.”